Event Details

Deaf people of color in the United States have repeatedly called for more racial and gender diversity among hearing American Sign Language (ASL)-English interpreters, most of whom are white women. To better understand the current state of deaf client-hearing interpreter relationships, I spent one year in Rochester, NY conducting in-person and remote (hybrid) ethnography to investigate the sociocultural and linguistic relationships between Black Deaf signers and hearing ASL-English interpreters. While in Rochester I employed engaged watching and listening, semi-structured interviews, and observations of interpreting encounters to answer my research questions. This research continues remotely and has expanded to the study of wider issues and ideologies related to living in a multilingual society such as the complex concepts of language access and language barriers. Increasing the understanding of how sociocultural and linguistic factors influence deaf client-interpreter interactions will help inform educators who train interpreters and future sign language interpreting research.

Following the presentation, other attendees will have the opportunity to share, discuss, and receive feedback on their own works-in-progress.